This was a really fun and educational read. I picked it up for research because I’ll be using various plants in the fantasy book I’m writing and was curious what this one would cover. While the chapter themes sometimes were for a single plant and sometimes for a variety of plants (which bothered my organizational heart a little), the information included in each chapter was always really interesting. I loved that sometimes we got stories from 100+ years ago and sometimes much more recent ones (in the last 30 or so years). That made this book feel much more realistic to me in the sense that these things happened within my lifetime. I know that might sound silly but it was cool to see more modern examples for once. The book itself is absolutely gorgeous and I’m putting it on my wishlist.

A fascinating glimpse into deadly plants. Well-written and very accessible, enhanced by colorful photos and drawings.

4/5 ⭐️

For the sake of full transparency, I was over zealous in my ARC pursuit on NetGalley and *assumed* this was a fantasy book based on the cover. Maybe a witchy adventure? I digress. I am happy to report that my mistake resulted in a positive experience with this book. The artwork is stunning. The information was interesting. Not my typical read, but enjoyable nonetheless.

I came for the stunning cover and left with knowledge regarding poisonous plants. Overall, would recommend

Expected Publish Date: October 22, 2024

A big thank you to NetGalley and Lerner Publishing Group for this eARC in exchange for my honest review. Reviews posted on NetGalley and Goodreads.

I enjoyed the book as it offered so many interesting facts and stories about various plants that I had never heard of or read about in books or seen in movies. I also loved the style of the book with all the greenery, but my favorite part was the drawing style of the plants as an introduction to each "chapter." I loved Rebecca's writing style because it was so engaging and I could not put down the book even with the sections about historical accounts of the different plants, I found myself immersed in the stories. I think this would be a great book for those 14 and older, just because there are some more grim and gruesome topics in the book, but it is written so that anyone of any age can enjoy it. The only thing that stood out to me was that there was some inconsistency with the formatting of some of the chapters, where some sections that were in other chapters were omitted from one or two of the chapters. I do like the idea of organizing the chapters in alphabetical order, however, I was sometimes confused because it would switch from an extremely deadly plant to something well-known and commonly found in day-to-day life. I would read this again and enjoyed the book and will for sure recommend it to my friends who are interested in plants and gardening. Loved the book!

This was really cool. It looked stunning and the writing was humorous yet informative. While personally, I would've loved even more scientific explanations of the mechanisms of the poisons, it's clear that this book is meant to be accessible for all ages and education backgrounds. For what it tried to do, it succeeded very well.

This would make a fun coffee table book.

I appreciate the integration of storytelling with scientific facts.

Most of the book is visually stunning, especially the chapter headings. However, I did find the large format and more modern photos to stick out and take away from the overall appearance. The book format and styling lack cohesiveness.

Thank you NetGalley and Zest Books for sending this book (eARC) for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

Very well done, informative, and entertaining. I will be purchasing when this is available as my family and I really enjoyed going through the plant and seeds and would like to refer back to this and read again.

Thanks Rebecca E. Hirsch, NetGalley, and Lerner Publishing Group for allowing me to review.

Beautifully laid out, wonderful pictures, and nice historical additions to each plant history makes this book an ideal coffee table or reference book. I really enjoyed how the book didn't just include illustrations, but also photographs of the plants and animals associated with them.

I'm a sucker for a pretty picture...and these plants are gorgeous!! I actually read this out loud to my 11 year old son and we found it so interesting. Having Lincoln in it helped my son connect to the book since it was a historical figure he knew about. It's amazing all the uses and misuses plants have!

A beautifully illustrated compendium that come with useful and digestible facts (they maybe poisonous but they are cool, I promise!).

I really appreciated the author's research and presentation in this book; it would either act as a great starting point for further research or an overall fun, informing read to those who wish to learn about poisonous plants. It was both for me and I would definitely consult this book for my future writing projects.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the E-ARC!

I wish I could have download it to my kindle rather than through the NetGalley app, but I would buy a hard copy as a coffee table book.

Wow, this book is visibly stunning. The illustrations are beautiful and the colors chosen for this book were extremely pleasing to the eye. I enjoyed the information quite a lot, honestly I was so captured by it I flew through the book really quickly. I will definitely keep it in my library because it is so interesting, also shocked about the fungus on wheat.

Some things I wish this book had? I wish that the book started off with the less BIG BAD DEADLY plants. I wish it was sectioned a bit. I would have liked the sections to show plants that do a little damage all the way up to the plants that can pack a big punch.

I think this book was so interesting with how she drew in a real life situation at the beginning of each chapter before delving into the details of the plant itself. Also, some of the animals that are not even affected by the plants? Like birds and peppers or that marsupial that is unaffected by the stinging tree in Australia? It is all extremely fascinating.

I enjoy hiking myself, and although I did not see much that would be native near me beyond poison oak/ivy, I am now going to be feeling a little more paranoid walking around the woods! This should be a hiker's handbook.

There are a lot of things I really enjoyed about this book so I’m going to start with the positives. This is an absolutely stunning and unique collection of deadly plants. This would be one to put on the coffee table because it is so stunning. The artwork is gorgeous, the photographs of the plants alongside famous counterparts who have played parts in the history of said plants are also quite enjoyable.

I also love the collection of plants chosen. On a nitpicky note I would’ve liked a little bit of a separation on certain plants. We have everything here from Coca to Poison Ivy to the big daddy killers like Castor Beans and Nightshade. I would’ve loved a section of plants that are used purposefully versus the ones that will outright kill you ie a chapter that has Cocaine, Peppers, etc.

The book is separated into sections dedicated to each plant and while there are a lot, I wish this was a bit more condensed. Each plant gets a couple pages that includes a blurb on human interaction with the plant, scientific information on the plant, a quote from a famous work that references the plant, and just basic information on each one. I wish there were about 5-7 less plants included so that each dedicated plant had more space, time, history, antidotes about it.

My biggest problem was the writing. I know this is a book that the main points are to teach about these deadly and unique species but the writing was delivered like a power point presentation in high school and left a lot to be wanted. There were multiple times there were asides that “gross information was coming” but I chose this book. Give me the dirty, gross, heinous effects from these plants and please don’t treat me like I’m ignorant. Typically I would take multiple stars off for this but as all the other aspects were highly enjoyable it made up for the lack. I enjoyed it a lot but also prefer books that are similar in nature with a more scientific and eloquent writing style.

I LOVED this book, from the beautiful illustrations to the wry and pithy writing, it was as a fun and informative trip into the world of poisonous plants. It should not be marketed as a children’s book, I think doing so will really limit sales

(Thanks to Zest Books for providing an eARC to review.)

There are small sections, with historical facts and stories, going over each of the plants. I enjoyed learning about the variety of poisonous plants and seeing the plant drawings.

A wonderfully colorful reference book full of pictures, illustrations and historical details. And while it may not cover everything in the world, it had a some of the most well known weeds of the western world and a couple I didn't even know about. There's a lot of detail that went into this for something that was labeled a children's book so praise to the author for her work. Very educational and informative. I really enjoyed this book.

Absolutely enthralling! I devoured this book in a couple of hours. The full color pages are gorgeous and add to the information. The natural world is fascinating and poison plants are no exception. I loved this incredible nonfiction read - ties in well with popular fiction titles like Belladonna - we can understand more why Adalyn Grace went with that as her poison of choice.

oh my gosh. i really loved this! i learnt so much & i didn't expect this to feel like a warm read at all. i'm not into non-fiction usually, but the synopsis and the pages immediately drew me in. i would recommend this for sure!

I thought the book was presented really well.

The images for the most part were engaging and beautiful, especially the introduction image at the beginning of each chapter. These images were reminiscent of old botanical journal drawings. There were a few images that threw off the overall aesthetic of the book, mainly the couple I saw from Getty Images.

The format of the book was very interesting and flowed well. I do wonder if the book may have been mislabeled as for children, not because of the content but because of the explanations. While I really enjoyed the real world examples of encounters with the plants, I thought they could have been fleshed out more, especially when compared to the details and explanation of how the body reacts to the poison compounds in the plants. This portion of each chapter I feel goes beyond a child’s ability to comprehend.

Overall, the book received five stars because it accomplished the author’s goal of introducing the reader to a series of carefully curated poisonous plants with a logical and easy to follow format that was also aesthetically pleasing. It’s a wonderful beginners guide to poisonous plants that also is artfully presented.

A Deathly Compendium of Poisonous Plants is a super gorgeous book about poisonous plants. I loved that it was a mix of botany and true crime as each plant included stories about poisonings that were done with it. It is definitely a dark read, but riveting! The illustrations are fantastic. I had a hard time putting this one down!

Thanks to NetGalley, Rebecca Hirsch, and Lerner Publishing for the chance to read and review! My opinions are my own.